New portal introduced by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to file complaints against social media platform decisions.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched a new portal called the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to help users appeal against decisions of social media firms regarding blocking of content or accounts. This is the country’s first redressal forum that will operate fully online. The GAC mechanism is an important step towards ensuring that the internet is open, safe, trusted, and accountable to users.

The chairpersons and other members of the three GACs established by the government will not have any office and will not conduct any physical hearings. Everything will be conducted online, from the filing of complaints by users to hearing them and pronouncing the final order. The portal for filing complaints was launched by the Minister of State for Electronics and IT (MeitY), Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday.

Chandrasekhar said that the GAC mechanism is designed to ensure that grievance redressal mechanisms of platforms are functional, responsive to people, and that appeals will come to GAC only as an exception when that function is unable to resolve a grievance. This will enable users to get a fair and transparent process for addressing their complaints.

To lodge a complaint on the GAC portal, any user who is not happy with any content either displayed or blocked on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook first needs to contact the grievance redressal officers of the platform concerned. If the user is not satisfied with the verdict of the platform’s officer, he/she can file a complaint on the GAC portal. The portal will then direct the complaints to one of the GACs.

The GAC concerned will then meet online with the complainant and the platform’s redressal officer and hear both the parties before pronouncing its order. The order of the GAC will be binding on the platform, and the appellants can track the status of their appeal through the appellant log in window. The GACs will upload their order on the portal, and the appellant will receive a notification of the same by SMS and email.

Appeals against GAC orders by either party can be filed in the court of law, high courts, or the Supreme Court.

In January, the government had formed three GACs with three members each. Each of the three GACs will have a chairperson and two whole-time members who will hold office for a term of three years from the date they assume charge. The first panel will be chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The whole-time members in the panel include Ashutosh Shukla, a retired Indian Police Service officer, and Sunil Soni, former Chief General Manager, and Chief Information Officer of Punjab National Bank.

The GAC mechanism is expected to provide a fair and transparent process for addressing complaints related to social media platforms. It will help users to appeal against decisions taken by social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in blocking content or accounts. The move is also expected to enhance the credibility of social media platforms in India, as users will now have a forum to lodge their complaints in a structured and transparent manner.

The launch of the GAC portal is a significant step towards the evolving framework that ensures the internet is open, safe, trusted, and accountable to users. It is expected to help strengthen the digital ecosystem in India, promoting responsible behavior among social media platforms and users alike. The GAC mechanism is an important step towards ensuring that the internet remains a safe and secure place for everyone, and it will help to build trust and confidence among users, social media platforms, and the government.